EU exec wants divorce deal with Britain, tech level contacts continue

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BRUSSELS, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Thursday it wanted to reach a deal with Britain on its exit from the European Union and that technical contacts were continuing, but that no new high level meetings were scheduled so far.

The Commission was reacting to comments from a British official that a deal that would give London’s vast financial services hub basic access to European Union markets after Brexit was nearly done.

Such a deal would give the United Kingdom the same level of access to the EU as major U.S. and Japanese firms, while however tying it to many EU finance rules for years to come in an arrangement of equivalence of rules first reported in July.

“We want to reach a deal with the UK on its orderly withdrawal from the EU. Contact at technical level continues. We cannot at this stage confirm when the next meeting between (EU chief negotiator) Michel Barnier and (Britain’s Brexit minister) Dominic Raab will take place,” a Commission spokesman said. (Reporting By Jan Strupczewski Editing by Gareth Jones)